In a country of our size, it is inevitable that problems arise when we need to ensure that enough stocks of the vital products we need are available. This has always been a problem.

It arises in a big way for medicines. The needs of a small community remain unsubstantial in volume, no matter how vital they may be. Those charged with providing them will consider that the volumes involved are so miniscule, they are just not worth the effort of supplying them. So, when they are stocked, their price gets to be so high that nobody... or too few... can afford them.

I doubt whether this perennial problem can ever be faced down and out. The initiatives being carried out by government to tackle it are greatly commendable.

European “solidarity” is supposed to extend towards us and towards all those who like us, live in a peripheral location, to help find some reasonable solution. It is not right that sick people in small communities are deprived of any new cure for their sickness, and this in order to stay in conformity with the laws of the free market.

***

THE EURO CONSTRUCT

Post the financial crisis of the years 2008 – 2012, deep reforms were introduced in the management of the euro. They were driven by the political panic that the eurozone was about to collapse. This was successfully prevented. Whether the reforms were fit for purpose or if there were other reasons for their success I cannot really tell. The process by which they got shaped was indeed tempestuous. 

On their basis though, the eurozone not only remained on the surface but it acquired a new respectability.

The problem is that the reforms that were introduced had to go deeper than they have done up to now (at least thirteen years since when they were first put in motion). It so happened that given the success that was achieved, the sense of an urgency to apply radical measures got muted. Suspicions increased between and amidst the different national interests involved... such that the euro project got stuck.

The sense of urgency has been lost.

***

THE BBC

In my younger days, I used to consider the British Broadcasting Corporation, the BBC, as the best source of news and information about the rest of the world. Not only did I believe the BBC was reporting the “truth”. I thought it also presented world news factually.

Its style was austere but “human”. Those presenting the news gave one the impression they knew what they were reporting on, by making factual and precise statements.

I’m not so convinced that even then, matters were proceeding on that basis.

In any case, today I no longer see the information  broadcast by the BBC in this way, even though I still follow its news messages. In an effort to achieve popularity on the social media, it has gotten to the point where (at least on the internet) magazine style features get jumbled up with current news. These features are not all so good or interesting, anyway.

Worst of all though, is that the news being conveyed does not always sound factual. Who knows why...

To repeat, I now suspect that this also used to happen in the past.  In those days, I didn’t notice.